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THE NATIONAL DOCTRINE OF ENGINEERINNG EDUCATION
BASIC PRINCIPLES

The competition on the labor market induces the engineering universities to solve the problems of training of specialists of the adequate quality.

The educational policy of the university in such conditions should be aimed at training the competitive specialists, who are socially protected by quality and by professional opportunities of their education and who are personally prepared to work in constantly changing conditions.

However, the successful solution of these problems and productive organization of University's activities on the intellectual labor market is impossible only on the basis of obligatory minimal requirements to the level of specialists training, which are established by the government.

For the successful functioning of the University on the intellectual labor market, taking into consideration the understanding of state educational standard, adopted in doctrine, we can see the need to form on the basis of state standard the educational standard of a definite educational institution, which should become a concentrated reflection of the educational policy of the University. (Fig.9)

Fig. 9.

The productivity of the idea to create the educational standard of the University was of major importance for us while developing the educational standard of Tomsk Polytechnic University.

This work affected almost the whole teaching staff of the University and allowed for the formation of a group of associates to implement pedagogical innovations suggested by the standard of the University.

While designing the educational standard of the University we have analyzed the requirements of the educational standard towards the TPU graduates, traditions and experience of the specialist training at Tomsk Polytechnic University, and also in the leading universities at home and abroad, we have studied the results and efficiency of the educational reforms in the leading countries of the world, and tried out in practice the research works of the scholars on the problems of educational institutions.

In the established educational standard of the University, we have taken into account all the peculiarities of specialist training for the region's intellectual labor market. The traditions, experience, and understanding of the contemporary level of specialist training by the University were represented, formation of the graduates' image, their professional mobility and competitiveness on the national and world intellectual labor market were guaranteed.

As a result of this work, the major requirements concerning the content of the University educational standard were established, in accordance with which the University should include the fractal organized totality (Fig.10):

• teaching, which provides mastering of the humanitarian and social and economical, mathematical and natural-scientific, general and vocational knowledge on the required level (Fig.10-a);

• education, which provides the formation of the methodological culture of the graduate; the mastering of the methods and techniques of the cognitive and professional, communicational and axiological activities (Fig.10-b);

• ability performance, which provides a complex training of the student for professional activities and his/her professional sef-actualization (Fig.10-c).

Fig. 10.

Fig. 10-a.

Fig. 10-b.

Fig. 10-c.

To turn a student into a professional engineer, it is important that he change the sphere of education for the sphere of activities. It is important to integrate knowledge and methods of functioning, where the key values are its system-forming factor.

To increase a student's professional potential, it is important to leave the sphere of knowledge for the sphere of practical activities and problem solving.

The distinguishing feature of the system of knowledge for training engineers is the stability of natural scientific, mathematical and world outlook basis of knowledge, the broadness of the interdisciplinary system-integrated knowledge of nature, society, way of thinking, and also a high level of general professional and special professional competence, that provide functioning in the problematic situations and allow to solve the task of specialists training with greater creativity.

Today, it is obvious that traditional understanding of vocational education as acquiring a set of knowledge, based on the teaching of fixed subjects, is not sufficient. Not only subjects should become the basis of education, but also the ways of thinking and functioning, i.e. procedures of reflective nature. Knowledge and methods of learning and functioning should be united into organic integrity. All this poses a task of including the issues of formation of methodological culture, including methods of cognitive, vocational, communicational and axiological activities into the requirements to content and level of engineering training. While designing the system of methods as one of the crucial components of the educational standard, it is important to state the level of method mastering. It is advisable to differentiate the level of method mastering into two classes, which provide the reproductive (achieving the traditional result with the use of popular means) and productive (posing new goals and creating new methods of their achievement, or achieving traditional results with the help of new means) activities.

The distinguishing feature of the engineering education should be a high level of methodological culture, superb creative mastering of the methods of cognition and functioning.

As experience of specialists training shows, the successful activities of the engineers are determined not only by the high level of knowledge, productive mastering of the methods of cognition and functioning, but also by the complex training for professional work. It is determined not only by the training for professional work in the conditions of the normal life and established production, but also for the tests, changes in the ways of life, for the repeating changes of their world-outlook, ideologies and concepts. Thus, successful vocational activity suggests not only a high level of teaching and education but also spiritual, moral, social, psychological, and physical culture of any individual. The University should become not only the center for science and education but also the center for ability development of a person, his professional coming-into-being and self-actualization.

When designing the content of education and the requirements to the level of training engineers, it is important to find the place for the system of knowledge and methods, aimed at accomplishing the tasks of self-knowledge and self-actualization of an individual.

An educational standard of the high vocational education includes three components: federal, regional, and university.

The federal component of the educational standard determines the mandatory minimum of requirements to the level of graduate training. It is established by the state educational standard of the high vocational education for specific specialties.

The regional component of the educational standard implies the national and regional peculiarities of specialists training and also provides their competitiveness on the regional intellectual labor market, thus reflecting the integration of the University into the scientific and production sphere of the region.

The university component of the educational standard reflects the peculiarities of scientific schools, traditions, experience and understanding of the contemporary level of specialists training by the University's community, also it provides the formation of the graduates' image, their professional mobility and competitiveness on the national and world intellectual labor market.

The university component of the educational standard of Tomsk Polytechnic University implies the students' erudition on the basis of the following:

• understanding a key role of methodological and ideological views in the sphere of professional activity;

• orientation to the professional skill and creative development of an occupation and an individual in it;

• mastering the social and psychological culture and skill to analyze social and personal significant problems;

• broadening an individual's outlook, high standards of behavior and good manners.

Including additional requirements to knowledge and skills of the graduate in the following disciplines:

• use of the system approach and methodological standard, cognitive, professional communicative, axiological activity and also methodology of humanitarian and social and economic, mathematical and natural sciences;

• knowledge of the basic scientific concepts of a human body, social and psychological characteristics of the man, their self-diagnostics and development self-planning;

• knowledge of features of intellectual property and copyright;

• understanding the role and place of the Russian university in specialists training.

In the market of intellectual labor the university introduces products through educational standards. Designed at the university, standards for all training courses and professions characterize Tomsk Polytechnic University as an identity in the educational system of Russia.

Crucial part in the formation of engineering education plays its humanitarian, fundamental and professional orientation. (humanitarization, fundamentalization, professionalization).

Humanitarization of the university technical education is based on the following principles:

• orientation of the engineering education system to the creation of conditions for spiritual, moral and cultural self-development of an individual;

• profound fundamental and methodological training of engineers in the sphere of humanitarian knowledge, spiritual life of the man and society;

• mastering the methodology of knowledge (cognition) and creativity, practical activity, social behavior and self-development of the personality as decisive conditions for success achievement in the course of life;

• creation of the premise for organic actuation of engineers in economical, social and cultural processes of the world civilization development;

• mastering the future professional work as a unity of physical, economical, social, social and psychological and noospheric regularities and assessment of usefulness of created artificial spheres from the view of historicism, priority of universal values, humanism, and general civilized approach;

• integral connection of educational process with extra curriculum activities, leisure and rest of students, broad involvement of scientists and cultural workers, art and religion, policy, law figures and workers f rom other spheres of public life to teaching in universities;

• democratization of the whole system of engineering education, political and ideological pluralism, combination of basic and changeable components of educational process, personalizing of training in accordance with the requirements of the student;

• internationalization of engineering education.

Valuable and semantic nature of humanitarisation of engineering education is the providing of harmonic unity of natural and scientific and humanitarian standard of knowledge and activity, of the unity based on mutual understanding and the dialogue.

The most crucial task of the system of engineering education in this respect is to create conditions of revival of unified natural and scientific and humanitarian standard of knowledge and activity.

For understanding the problems of fundamentalization of engineering education we cite the classification of educational disciplines (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11.

Taking into account the given classification, fundamentalization of engineering education includes:

• the increase in the volume and significance of disciplines of general scientific cycle, strengthening of connections between disciplines of the educational schedule that shall promote the education of system -defined thought of the specialist, understanding of the necessity of economical, social, political and other factors at elaboration and introduction of new techniques, technologies, equipment etc.,

• modification (reorganization) of professional disciplines' cycle consisting in, at first, strengthening of attention in these courses to methodical, ideological and social problems, secondly, in analysis of individual factors, single regularities of phenomena and concepts, theoretical aspects on the basis of fundamental ideas and principles, characteristic for the given science, thirdly, in transition from the analysis to synthesis of the design solutions, their optimization and mathematical modeling in special courses;

• formation of methodological culture of the specialist including methods of cognitive, professional, communicative and axiological activities in the process of education;

• studying of special disciplines, aimed at the formation of reliable skills in the use of means and technologies of information culture, and also disciplines, aimed at mastering of rational methods of education.

Professionalization of education is aimed at the training of the professional of a new-type, who is likely to be regarded as the carrier of an integrated technological activity and is remarkable for the depth of thought, encyclopedic knowledge, delicacy of spirit, who is capable of creative activity at all stages of vital cycle of systems' creation from research and design up to the elaboration of technologies and enterprise activities.

Professional competence may be achieved in real educational training by means of engineering and engineering culture mastering, as well as practice-biased training (system methodology, conceptual designing, development programming).

The development of engineering education doctrine requires thorough investigation of engineering language training improvement problems. There is a need to reconsider the objectives, content and foreign language training technology in the system of engineering education, to provide foreign language training motivation, to strengthen a material, technical and teaching staff base, and to involve various specialists having a high level of language competence, to develop multilevel language training individual-biased system and to form active information and teaching linguistic environment at engineering universities, etc.

The major objectives set by the state educational standard should imply practical modern language competence as means of cross-cultural communication, which provides:

• continuation of education and professional activities in international environment;

• communicative and cultural competence in everyday communication with native speakers;

• fluency in reading newspaper and magazine articles, understanding TV and radio programs without translation, ability to perform business correspondence, to hold negotiations, and to draw up contracts;

• professional competence in translation of specialized technical literature in the original, in presenting lectures and reports, and in writing scientific articles in the foreign language.

The formation of a high level of informational culture in the system of engineering education is essential for efficient engineering activity on the threshold of the 3rd millennium.

Information and intellectual technologies, accumulated information resources in the form of data and knowledge, information and logical models, huge computing capacities and means of global telecommunication dialogue create the basis for functional division of labor in the scientific and technical activities and provide opportunities to create sophisticated systems in the creative laboratory of an individual for the first time in the history of mankind.

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